Cooperation and Competition in Chinese and American Children

Abstract

The hypothesis that Chinese children would be more cooperative than American children was tested in a group of 76 Chinese children and 76 American children by use of the Social Values Task, a game-like choice task where each child selects a number of tokens for him- or herself and an unspecified other. Six patterns of outcome preferences are possible. Chinese children gave equality responses most often, followed by group enhancement responses, whereas American children gave individualistic and competitive responses more frequently.